1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telephone customer premises equipment. More particularly, it relates to telephone customer premises equipment which is capable of alternately disabling and enabling the buttons of the telephone customer premises equipment to inhibit inadvertent activation of the buttons, e.g., of the keypad.
2. Background of Related Art
Many times, after a user has established a telephone call with another party, the user or other person inadvertently depresses or otherwise activates a button of the telephone. While having a tendency to happen with all types of telephones, this problem occurs perhaps most frequently with telephones having buttons (e.g., a keypad) located directly on the handset, e.g., the remote handset of a cordless telephone.
Generally, activation of one or more buttons of the telephone, e.g., a button of a keypad, can cause annoying functions, e.g., a DTMF tone on the telephone line resulting in a loud tone in the earpiece of the handset of the user and/or the other party. Sometimes, however, depending upon which button is depressed, activation of the button can actually cause a control function to occur or, worse yet, can cause inadvertent disconnection of the established telephone call.
For instance, when a user is connected to-another party while using the remote handset of a cordless telephone, the user might accidentally terminate the telephone call by inadvertently activating the on-hook button, annoyingly interrupting the telephone call with DTMF tones, inadvertently change channels, etc. This type of inadvertent activation may happen most often while holding the remote handset closely against the head while using both hands to attend to another task, or even by a child playing with the remote handset.
FIG. 7 illustrates the relevant portion of a conventional telephone system 11 capable of allowing a user to establish a telephone call on a telephone line 15 with another party.
In particular, in FIG. 7, the telephone system 11 is connected to a telephone company central office 13 via the telephone line 15. A telephone line interface (TLI) 17 in the telephone system 11 provides the conventional isolation, DC and AC impedance as required by telephone company standards. The telephone line interface also provides a ring detect signal to a controller 19. The ring detect signal indicates to the controller 19 the ringing of an incoming telephone call on the telephone line 15. The controller 19 can be any suitable processor, e.g., a a microcontroller, or digital signal processor (DSP).
The telephone system 11 further includes conventional components and features, e.g., a handset 21 (which may be wired as shown or wireless), and a set of buttons including an alphanumeric keypad 23 for dialing appropriate telephone numbers, etc. The handset 21 may include an additional or alternative set of buttons including another alphanumeric keypad 21a to allow telephone functionality at the handset 2l.
The particular buttons typically available on the handset 21 (and even on a base unit) allow control of the telephone line. For instance, upon activation of an on-hook/off-hook button, a telephone call would be hung up using a conventional telephone system. Moreover, activation of a channel selection key, or any of the 12 or 16 keys of a conventional alphanumeric keypad or other buttons (including switches, etc.) may cause interruptions or other annoyances to the users of the telephone system.
There is therefore a need for a telephone system which prevents interruptions and other annoyances to the users of a telephone system as desired during the time that the telephone is being used.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a set of buttons for customer premises equipment comprises at least one manual control. A button disabling module is adapted to selectively disable the at least one manual control on a call-by-call basis.
A method of disabling one or more manual controls of customer premises equipment in accordance with the principles of another aspect of the present invention comprises establishing a telephone call, and disabling at least one manual control on the customer premises equipment for a duration of the established telephone call only.
An apparatus for disabling at least one manual control of a customer premises equipment in accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention comprises means for allowing a user to disable at least one manual control of said customer premises equipment on a call-by-call basis.